Not too much to report on. I got the new battery trays for one of my E7 so I was playing around with those last night. The rest of the time was spent cleaning off part of my workbench.

I'm probably going to glue the front of the turtle deck on and work on the rear part. One side is about 1/8" shorter than the other.

I'm also trying to decide what to do next. I will probably start preparing the sheeting for the vertical stab/rudder. I'm also thinking of mounting the cowling before I start building the hatch. Decisions, decisions...

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

I spent most of what little free time I had on my new battery tray so the only thing I did not related to that was to get out the cowl for Dalton 300 and tape it together. I'm going to work on mounting it next.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

Stuff for work go in the way tonight so I took care of a few odds and ends.

One side of my turtle deck was slightly shorter than the other so I cut a piece of balsa to add to it. I'll trim it up some more and sand it down so that the sides match.

After that, I trimmed and glued on the plate for the front of the turtle deck. It will need to be sanded down, but between a jigsaw and sanding bar, I got it pretty close.

I also dug through the accessories bag and found some of the 6-32 hardware for mounting the cowl. We're supposed to get more rain so I'm not sure if I will do anything for work this weekend.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

I made some progress on the cowl tonight. I began with the two pieces held together with tape and marked where the overlaps were. I then used a Dremel with a cutoff wheel to remove small pieces of the lower piece.

I had to do a little more cutting after the first cuts to get a good fit. I took my time and worked carefully and now the two pieces line up pretty good.

I then took a square and marked where I'm going to glue some lite ply for the blind nuts and bolts that hold the cowl pieces together. I marked it at 3/4", 3.5", 6.5", 9.5", and 13" on each side.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

I began tonight making some tabs for the back side of the lower cowl. Each was measured to be 3/4" by 1". I used scroll saw to cut it out. I don't know how old this is because I got it from my grandfather so probably mid-60's. Still works great though!

After I had the tabs cut, I mixed up some 30 minute Epoxy with milled fiberglass and began gluing them on. I used some of the small and cheap clamps from Harbor Freight to hold the tabs in place. For the two at the front, there was a small gap so I used a syringe and needle filled with the remaining epoxy mix to shoot it in the space between and to make a filet on the sides. This was to help keep it in place but primarily to help prevent crushing the fiberglass.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

I made some more progress on the cowl last night. I began by working on the right side and at the front. I drill a 1/8" pointed drill bit. Once I got through the fiberglass of the top cowl side, I switched to the drill bit for tapping a 6-32 bolt. I used this to drill through the fiberglass lip and the plywood back pieces.

I then just drove in a 6-32 bolt to hold the pieces together. The bolt with thread the plywood and give you a reasonable hold. Strong enough to easily work with but I wouldn't fly it that way.

I then taped the cowl to the fuse to see how it would fit. Very little adjustment is needed.

I also picked up some more wood yesterday from the LHS. I got some 1/4"x3/8" spruce for support structures (I.E. receiver, batteries, etc.), some 3/32" balsa since the sheeting that came with it was damaged in moving, and a 1/4" lite ply plate for doing something with tuned pipe exits.

I'm not thinking about doing a DA 150 on JTEC HP-90 tuned pipes. I'm not going to build a pipe tunnel but I will remove the spruce stringers and make a custom plate for air exit if I go pipes. Will see when I can have the money to buy the pipes. Gotta get through the summer first.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

That's damn near as much work as installing a cowling on a real plane! Nice job.

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Chris Boultinghouse

Yesterday morning, I started on the bolt locations for the lower part of the cowl this morning while batteries charged. However, when I went flying yesterday, I found that my DA 60 isn't drawing fuel so I got to mess with that.

I figured out my choke butterfly wasn't closing all the way and it's running again. Just gotta re-tune it now.

Here are the pics from yesterday.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

Well, the cowl is 95% done. I drilled the holes for the remaining bolts for the lower half. After that, I took a ball driver to see where I needed to make holes for installing the lower bolts of the lower portion. I then installed the lower half and used a Sharpie to mark the locations for the blind nuts.

After I got the blind nuts in, I bolted everything up. I'm going to have to get some more bolts for everything but I don't need much to start building the hatch. I lined up the front of the of the hatch to the back of the top half of the cowl and it's looking pretty good. I will post pics of that process later.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

I got stuck finishing up some stuff for work since it's actually dry enough for us to plant today and tomorrow. I also had to take care of some stuff around the house too.

But I got my replacement canopy and anti-rotation bushings yesterday. I was a little worried since there was a hole in the side of the box but everything inside seemed to be OK.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer